CIRES / NOAA Data Analyst Professional Research Assistant

$68,218 - $101,555/Yr

University of Colorado - Boulder, CO

Full-time - Entry Level

Hybrid - Boulder, CO

501-1,000 employees

Educational Services

About the position

The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder is seeking three Professional Research Assistants - Data Analysts to support the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. These positions will focus on modernizing data acquisition and processing for aquatic animal surveys, utilizing advanced analytical tools to classify echosounder data and contextual information. The role involves collaboration with NOAA scientists and the development of cloud-optimized data formats to enhance data processing and classification accuracy.

Responsibilities

• Collate and format annotated acoustic data from the six Science Centers for input to advanced analytical echo-classification models (50%)
• Organize co-variate data for input to advanced analytical echo-classification models (25%)
• Work collaboratively with the Science Centers and data scientists/software developers in support of the AA-SI ‘Echo Classification' activity (25%)

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree in Information Science, Computer Science, Data Science, or a related technical discipline, or a Science field with 3+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience with scripting and object-oriented programming languages (e.g., Python and R) and able to learn new languages as needed.
• Experience using version control (Git) and issue tracking.
• Experience working with real world data and solving data-driven problems.
• Demonstrated ability to work with and organize large volumes of data, metadata, and other supporting data.
• Expertise in managing and transforming large datasets.
• Excellent use of Python programming.
• Knowledge of metadata and metadata standards.
• Familiarity with cloud services, specifically Google Cloud Platform, and efficient migration of systems from non-cloud environments into cloud-based systems.
• Demonstrated ability to work competently and collaboratively with diverse teams, in-person and remotely, across multiple time zones.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Excellent English verbal and written communication skills.
• Flexible and proactive attitude combined with an ability to work independently and with other team members to simultaneously make progress on multiple projects.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with Java and Bash programming languages.
• Familiarity with SQL relational databases.
• Experience with or knowledge of spatial data and databases.
• Experience troubleshooting enterprise software applications.
• Experience documenting standard operating procedures for technical tasks.
• General understanding of oceanography and collection techniques for echosounder and trawl-catch data.
• Experience with or knowledge of common echosounder data software, e.g., Echoview, Echopype, and PyEcholab.
• Experience with or knowledge of the principles and theories of fisheries acoustics, echosounder data analysis, and echo classification.

Benefits

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• On-the-job training
• Paid time off